Yes I have been in the silt up situation a few times especially on the Spiegal Grove. There is a fin kick technique that helps keep down the silt that can be taught but experience is the best. By no means do I consider an AOW diver an experienced wreck diver just with the AOW cert.

I was trained on wrecks in Pompano. My 1st OW dive was 60ft on the Sea Emperor, 2nd 60ft on Abby Too, 3rd 60ft on Ancient Mariner for OW cert. For AOW deep 7th logged dive was 100ft on Captain Dan. After that spent a lot of time in the keys wreck diving and gained experience quickly. My 17th logged dive was the Vandenburg, 20th Spiegal Grove and 21st the Oriskany. Being trained on wrecks is what created my love of wreck diving. I learned from the start the techniques of safe AOW wreck diving, I didn’t need a specialty course. Ive logged 10 on the Spiegal Grove and 8 on the Vandenburg. IMO the best beginner dive training is on wrecks in the Atlantic.

Sounds like some of the stuff you did was a bit extreme but like you say that’s what helped you learn from mistakes. With wreck penetration though you may only get 1 mistake and too many leaned that the hard way in the keys.